Live Review: PREMIERE: Introducing Blisstake and their debut single, 'Beauty'

Describing themselves as making music "for before, during, and after the party," newcomers BLISSTAKE arrive in style with their debut single today, 'Beauty', which we're thrilled to be premiering on Purple Sneakers. Formed by Jessi and Al after Jessi played a showcase in London with Tiana Khasi and both headed to Sicilia to live off the last scraps of their savings, Blisstake fuse their roots in jazz and hip hop, and folk and pop respectively to create something otherworldly, emotive and unique, and we can't get enough.

Over retro-future synths and a chugging beat, Al's delicate pop vocals softly float above the fray. Peculiar, a little off-centre and entirely intoxicating as it steadily rises, 'Beauty' pulls you in with its persistence and keeps you there with its gentle side. If this song was played at a party, it would be just after nightfall when things start to get a little weird and time starts to lose all meaning — the perfect witching hour soundtrack.

Made from a place of complete collaboration, Jessi said of the project, “Mostly it was just written in our shitty fold out couch-bed, one person writing a chord progression and the next person adding a melody or lyric, then rearranging and building until we had a song.”

Al said, “Blisstake is really about making music that is fun and silly but that also reflects my personal ethics. I talk a lot about sex positivity, about healthy boundaries, personal autonomy, all that stuff. There are some sad songs about relationships gone bad too, about feeling like you don’t know yourself, but the protagonists work through those moments and come out the other side stronger. The songs I’ve written for previous projects have really focused on that vulnerability in admitting something’s wrong and not knowing what to do about it. So in this project I really wanted to give more power and autonomy to my characters, do something a little different.”

With more still on the way, as far as first impressions go, they don't get much better than this. Dive into 'Beauty' below:

Words by Emma Jones

Image via Blisstake's Facebook

LISTEN TO NEW MUSIC HERE

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